A new study estimates that over 90% of U.S. adults may still be vulnerable to infection, and less than 10% have virus antibodies.
About 10% of American people may have the capability to COVID-19 resistance, while over 90% of Americans remain susceptible to COVID-19, according to an analysis announced on Friday.
ABC News reported that derived data from dialysis centers in the United States, a study brought out in The Lancet, figure out that less than 10% of U.S. adults have virus antibodies, implying the rest of U.S. adults are still vulnerable to infection.
A new study shows predominant results
According to CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, these numbers are stumblingly united by a prospective Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, who addressed a Senate hearing on Wednesday.
“The preliminary results in the first round reveal that a majority of our nation, more than 90% of the population, remains susceptible,” said Redfield. He cited an ongoing CDC study assessing the predominance of immunizers to trace how universally the virus has spread properly. He also added the CDC data is expected to be published in the next weeks.
The Lancet study proposes new details wherein researchers at Stanford University study the prevalence of COVID-19 in the U.S. population. The result shows 28,503 U.S. patients receive dialysis in July 2020, and 8% of them had COVID-19 antibodies.
Potential immunity influenced by virus
The virus could sink away when the large population becomes immune enough, and the study raises questions over herd immunity. The problem is that they don’t know yet whether antibodies or immunizers provide sufficient resistance to COVID-19 and protection from viruses.
“What we know about the antibodies is that things get a little unpredictable,” said Dr. Jay Bhatt, former chief medical officer of the American Hospital Association.
“This study suggests that we have a long way to go. To get to the kind of immunity, we need to move past the virus,” the medical officer added.
This study is different from many others because it looked at dialysis patients who already undergo routine and monthly laboratory studies. This allows for better and more reliable data collection.
John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, talked about the study’s findings. He said that the results should be taken with a grain of salt. This is because dialysis patients aren’t necessarily representative of the general population.
Patients with end-stage kidney disease and severe COVID-19 have several risk factors in common. They’re older, have higher rates of hypertension and diabetes, and people of color are disproportionately affected by both. This adds an extra layer of insight to the study’s findings.
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